


The Bright, The Brilliant, The Broken.

by noodlerdoodler



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Cliche, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Magic School
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-18
Updated: 2015-10-25
Packaged: 2018-04-27 00:24:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5026555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noodlerdoodler/pseuds/noodlerdoodler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Magic is stupid. The people that practise it are even stupider." </p>
<p>"You attend a magical school, you dolt." </p>
<p>"Yeah, did I ever say I was smart?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Karkat

**Author's Note:**

> Something to write in my spare time. Short chapters rock.

When Karkat reached his room, he found that his roommate was already there and had already resumed the position that he was probably going to stay in for the rest of the evening. It's the only position that Sollux seems to be able to sit in, leaning against the wall and slouching forward over a book or something. 

He knew for a fact that his roommate was used to living with a lot of technology at home, normally never spending ten minutes away from a device. He knew this because Sollux normally spent the first week or two of term having shakes from withdrawal. It was a mix between being rather entertaining and concerning. 

Karkat's father didn't allow much technology in their house. Sure, they had a landline so that they could be contacted (their home was pretty much in the middle of nowhere so this was a necessity) and they had one computer between their family of three. Because of Kankri's obsessive blogging and his father's work, Karkat rarely got a turn on the computer. Because of this, he didn't really understand how Sollux could pretty much have an addiction to the machine. 

But, hey, each to his own, he guesses. 

"Welcome back, Vantas." Sollux acknowledges his existence with a curt nod, his lisp butchering any words with an 's' sound, "Ready to fill your think-pan to the brim with shitty knowledge that you'll never need in the real world?" 

Okay, so here's Captor's deal. He comes from a family of powerful magicians that are pretty much masters of every power to do with the mind; telekinesis, telepathy, etc. His father is the Psiioniic- one of your dad's friends- one of the most powerful magicians around. His elder brother is in senior year and one of the most powerful in the school. Sollux's got that psionic shit tucked under his belt and can whip it out at any moment. As a result, he thinks he's far too smart to be attending this school and requests every year to be bumped up a grade or two. So far, he's had no success and this makes him pissy. 

Living with such an obnoxious roommate for four years- everybody gets stuck with the same one for all their time at the school, unless their roommate gets eaten by a dragon or something (it's happened before apparently)- and now five, has been a challenge. Karkat isn't going to deny that. But if Captor gets above his station, Karkat crushes him back down into place. And, over the years, they've developed a fast friendship. 

They had to, they were stuck in a reasonably small room together. 

"Ready to shut the fuck up, you smug piece of shit?" Karkat says, approaching the bed that his roommate is lazing across. It is not his roommate's bed, it's Karkat's bed, but he knows how to deal with this. This is normal. He takes hold of the mattress, tips it up, and sends Sollux spilling onto the floor with an undignified yelp. Karkat sits on his bed, reclaiming it. 

"Fucking rude." Sollux says, rescuing his glasses from the floor and pushing them back on before his psionics can explode and send the entire room to hell. That happened more than one last year (especially when it was the end-of-year exams and Sollux got stressed) and no matter how many times Karkat used _"Clean up!"_ \- one of the more popular spells among students- he couldn't get the room quite right. Their curtains are still badly singed. He hasn't been able to dislodge a book from their ceiling lamp yet. 

Their room also has a tendency to look like a trash heap most of the year, since Sollux is a complete slob and Karkat doesn't want to clean up after him. But for the first few weeks, they try to make it look decent enough. By the end of second term, everything will have gone to shit again. It's traditional. 

"Speaking of fucking rude, have you seen Ampora yet?" Karkat dumps his suitcase on his bed, resolving that he'll unpack later (and knowing full-well that he probably won't bother until half way through the first term, since it's much easier to just keep everything in his suitcase and pull out what he needs), "I saw him hanging around the Main Hall earlier and he said that he was looking for you. Probably also looking to pound that pretty ass of yours into a mattress."

Sollux chuckles. "Oh, in his wildest dreams. I'm going to try my best to avoid him this year."

"You can't just avoid your _boyfriend_ , you shithead." It's been a joke for years that Sollux and Eridan are a couple, since they spend far too much time in each other's company and Karkat knows for a fact that Sollux talks about his enemy 95% of the time. The only people that don't think they're together are the pair of idiots themselves. 

"He's not my boyfriend, actually. He's my arch-nemesis. You do remember that, don't you, KK? How we have spent the last five years trying to kill each other? You were there for that, I remember, you called us "obsessive idiots"." 

Yes, Karkat does remember the years of arguing and duelling and fist-fights but he also remembers catching Sollux and Eridan kissing out in the courtyard one time after dark. And one time on Sollux's bed. And one time in the stairway on his way to alchemy. He still hasn't told anybody about any of these events but he remembers them all vividly. Gross. From the way that his roommate is avoiding his eyes, he probably doesn't want this to be brought up. Karkat decides to play nice and just shrugs at him. 

"What about you and TZ?" Sollux says, flipping through his book with an (faked) apathetic look on his face, "Are you two still going strong?"

"Yes." It's a lie, she hasn't contacted Karkat all summer. He supposes that this could just be because her family was away while Mrs Pyrope worked on official business and Terezi simply didn't have time to write him. Even if she had, her handwriting is impossible to decipher. He probably wouldn't be able to read anything she'd sent, even if she had bothered to. Humph, he didn't need her shitty letters. Beside, he could just see her today and things could pick up where they left off last term. 

By that, he means picking up from when they'd kissed amongst the willow trees before everybody got picked up by their parents and taken home. Picking up from how cherry red her cheeks had been and how she'd been grinning up at him. That usual batshit-crazy sparkle shining in her eye. Her arms wrapped tightly around his shoulders because she was so much taller. That was where he wanted to pick up from. 

Actually, he hopes that he'll be a little taller and be able to kiss her without standing on the tips of his toes. 

He's just thinking this, when there's a knock on the door and his heart jolts at Terezi being here already. She's the only girl that's only been able to sneak into the boys dorms, as far as Karkat's aware, and he still doesn't know how she manages it. Whenever he asks, Terezi just cackles wickedly. 

But then, the door swings open and it isn't his girlfriend standing there. It's Karkat's older brother. 

"Oh, shit."


	2. Kankri

He had gotten separated from his younger brother shortly after they'd arrived because Karkat, as impulsive as he was, had rushed off without so much as saying goodbye. 

This had left Kankri feeling a little hurt but luckily, it hadn't been long before he'd caught up with old friends. Or, more likely, old enemies. He'd come across Cronus Ampora on his way in, on the stairs in fact, and had been quick to address him.

Though they had lived together for the entitreity of their time at this school, Cronus and Kankri didn't like each other much. Sure, they made small talk and occasionally studied together in their room, (Cronus needed a lot of help with his homework and Kankri liked to boast about how much he knew), but deep down, Kankri hated him. A lot. Or he had thought so until the very end of last year. He didn't know where they stood now. 

"Well, well, if it isn't my roommate and violating several of the school rules already." Kankri had raised an eyebrow, making sure to adjust his brand new and shiny prefect badge accordingly so that Cronus would definitely spot it. It had arrived at the start of the summer with a letter and he'd pretended to be surprised about it. His father had been so proud. Much to his disappointment, Cronus didn't take notice and instead, ruffled his hair and let out a chuckle. Kankri hated having his greasy hands touching him and let out a huff. 

"Kanny, it's nice to see ya back! Didn't think ya'd be comin' back after the trouble that ya Daddy got into over the summer." 

"It's _Kankri_ and I suppose you are referring to his work to achieve rights for other magical creatures, such as vampires, werewolves and mermaids? Yes, that did get my father into quite a lot of trouble with the higher wizards for that. Personally, I find his work to be quite admirable." As he was speaking, he was walking up the stairs in an attempt to leave Cronus in the dust. Unfortunately, it seemed that they were both heading to the dorms because they turned off the same way. It was enough to make Kankri bite his lip. 

"Yeah. It was... Cool, I guess." Cronus shrugged, looking blank. He probably wasn't even bothering to listen, Kankri thought now, looking back with annoyance. They'd continued on their way in silence; upon reaching their room, both of them had reached for the handle and they'd bumped hands. Kankri tried not to look flustered, feeling heat rush to his face. The contact hadn't lasted long but it had been long enough for him to realise that Cronus's hands were cold and soft. He almost wanted to grip one. 

He had shaken that thought away and opened the door. 

"Hey, have you seen Dan around?" Cronus asked, clearly in an attempt to make conversation to fill the quiet as they headed into the room, (honestly, Kankri would have preferred for the peacefulness to continue rather than make awkward small talk), "He ditched me at the door and  
ran off. I hope none of the older kid's are gonna mess around with him this year." 

"No, I haven't seen Eridan around." Kankri has never been one for nicknames, "If anybody pushes him around, I'll see to them. I can give detentions now, you know." 

"You're a prefect now?" Cronus realised at last and Kankri puffed his chest out with pride, nodding, "Fuck, I gotta clean my act up then. The last thing I want is another detention cleaning that weird purple mould out of the dungeons." Remembering that one detention from last year made Kankri flush. 

He was never one to get detentions but last year, he'd been caught breaking the rules with Cronus. They'd been out of their dorm after curfew. There had been a reason; they hadn't just been sneaking around. Kankri had just realised some vital information about the Seventh Pillar that they'd needed to find, (their entire last year had been spent finding these pillars before their world could collapse), and they'd been rushing out to see the headmistress. Unfortunately, they'd gotten caught and despite the fact that they'd managed to save the school, they'd still earned themselves some detentions. A weeks worth, in fact. 

And it had been during the last detention of the year that the incident had happened. 

Cronus had kissed him. 

Kankri had recoiled. 

Neither of them had mentioned it since. 

Face hot, Kankri had began to put his belongings away, making sure that all his clothes were folded, that all his books were lined up neatly on the shelves, that everything looked perfect. He was a big believer in perfection. Cronus was not. When he'd reached the bottom of his suitcase, Kankri had discovered that he'd had some of his brother's books stashed away at the bottom. He sighed. 

Somehow, Karkat's belongings always found their way into his. He always found something belonging to his brother hidden away in his suitcase. Always. Every single year. Without fail. It would border on miraculous if it wasn't annoying. During his third year, he'd even found Karkat's socks had somehow found their way into Kankri's alchemy textbook. It had become a sort of joke between Kankri and Cronus to see what it was each year. 

"Textbooks? That's a new one." Cronus had looked up and smirked in amusement. Sometimes, Kankri wonders if the reason that his roommate is so fascinated with him and Karkat is because they're like a comedy to him. Cronus seems to derive amusement from watching the two of them screaming at each other in the dorms, sometimes magicking up some popcorn to eat. 

"Yes." Kankri shook his head, smiling in a "isn't my brother adorable and annoying" kind of way, "I should go and give these back." 

And that was how he came to be standing in the doorway of his brother's room right now, holding out a pile of textbooks. 

"Oh shit. What the fuck do you want?" Karkat scowled. 

"Language, Karkat. I can report you for that, you know." 

"I know, Mr Prefect. You were telling me that all summer. The only flaw in your plan is that I genuinely don't give a shit." He snatches the textbooks from Kankri, throwing them on his bed, "Well? That's all you wanted, wasn't it?" 

"Actually, I also wanted to inquire as to if you'd seen the Pyropes yet." Kankri says, "You haven't spoken to your girlfriend all summer and I was just wondering..." A dark cloud seems to cross Karkat's face and his scowl deepens. 

"Fuck, just go back to your boyfriend." Karkat groans, obviously frustrated; there's snickering from his roommate, " _Get the fuck out_." And the way he speaks it and waves his left hand makes it a spell, causing the door to slam shut. Kankri has to move back so that it doesn't break his nose. 

Just as he thought, his brother is having just as many romantic problems as he is. 

He wonders what Karkat would think if he found out that the boy he jokes about being "Kankri's boyfriend" had actually kissed him last year. 

Kankri pushes these thoughts away as he heads back to his room.


	3. Sollux

Honestly, Sollux couldn't remember the last time he'd been as hungry as he was right now but that was probably only because he felt quite light-headed FROM hunger and it was hard to even think, let alone recall his memories. 

As per usual, his Dad had entirely forgotten that he had two sons to feed and hadn't prepared anything for breakfast today. He'd been forced to take the train up here on an empty stomach, since his Dad hadn't even had time to drive him. He was "much too busy with work" and had promised that he'd write soon. Sollux knew he wouldn't. 

Lately, his Dad been forgetting things even more often than usual. The summer had been long and hungry for Sollux, who could barely function if he didn't have something to eat or snack on. It was a great joke among him and his friends that he could only study if he had a stack of candy bars to get him through it. 

Their kitchen had been scarce for food, since his Dad hadn't been to the supermarket in what felt like centuries, and it's not something that he could exactly magic up in his bedroom. It's impossible to conjure up solid objects like food out of nothing. It's impossible to create or destroy anything solid like magic. It's possible to turn objects into other things, it's possible to create things out of other things. For example, he did try to turn his bedside lamp into a candy bar but magic like is especially hard. Anyway, he couldn't magic food up. 

He'd been pretty fucking hungry but Mituna had been worse than that. 

If Mituna wasn't fed and content, he got grouchy. And when he got grouchy, the entire world had to know about it. At first, Sollux thought that it was karma when Mituna started throwing screaming fits in front of other people, on the few times that they went out in public. It humiliated his dad and reminded him that his sons still existed, which was definitely good. He'd always pay more attention when one of them was howling with tears. But after it had been seven hours and Mituna was still sobbing his eyes out furiously, Sollux got really tired of it. 

Sometimes, he wished that Mituna wasn't so... Mituna-ish. 

It wasn't that his dad neglected them or anything, that would be awful. It was just that recently he'd been so busy with work that he'd rarely left his study, except to go to meetings with Mr Vantas and Miss Leijon and those always lasted for hours. Sollux had no idea what the meetings were even about; his dad refused to tell him and the firewalls on his computer had been much stronger than usual. 

The first half of Sollux's summer had been spent babysitting his older brother, which was a lot more difficult that it sounded. Mituna was even worse than him when it came to mood swings and could go from zero to one hundred real quick. It sucked. 

"Captor, are you listening?" Karkat waves a hand in front of his face, "You were zoning out there." 

Huh? Oh yeah, his mind had wandered for a moment there. 

Sollux and Karkat had finally reached the bottom of the staircase and were approaching the dining hall. God, Sollux could smell his dinner from here. As it was a pretty pricey magic school with lots of kitchen staff, pretty much any meals could be made and the school really went all out on the first night. Fuck, Sollux hoped they had some cheeseburgers- he would murder for one right about now. 

"Sorry, just thinking about Mituna." 

"I'm sure he's fine with Miss Maryam." 

Miss Maryam was the nicest lady that Sollux had ever met and often had Mituna to stay during this time of year because everybody else was too occupied to look after him. With Sollux at school and Psii at work, she became the the residentiary babysitter in their places. She took good care of Tuna, he knew that, and he was glad. His brother was probably getting hand-fed Miss Maryam's excellent home-cooking, which made Sollux feel a little jealous. That women really knew how to bake. 

"Yeah, I guess. Hey, did you get to see your dad much this summer?" 

"Well, no less than usual. He was pretty busy though." 

"Yeah..." Sollux huffs, "Your dad likes playing the part Mr Family Man, doesn't he?" 

"You bet your ass he does." Karkat laughs, harshly, before pausing, "Sollux, did your dad abandon you and lock himself in his study again?" 

The Gemini regrets ever telling his friend about his dad's habits. 

"Yeah." 

Thank god, he'd gotten that call from Terezi midway through summer, saying that her family was heading to Hungary and would he like to come with them? When he'd explained that he couldn't leave Mituna, she said that Latula was already planning to invite him anyway. That had solved everything and the Captor brothers had won their first ever holiday abroad with the Pyropes of all people. They were pretty rich, nothing compared to Ampora or Peixes but still, and the holiday had been the break Sollux had needed. 

There had been dragons and sunlight and relaxing and nice landscapes and fancy buildings and honestly, he had been very sad to come home. 

Still, he'd hadn't eaten much of the weird food. The Pyropes had a red-food only kind of diet and that consisted of eating a lot of meat, strawberries, and candy canes. His weak stomach was not prepared to eat just those three things for four weeks and he ended up not eating very much. So, by the time he had returned to school, he'd been bordering on starved.

Honestly, he reckoned that he could eat an entire dragon right about now. 

He wouldn't tell Terezi that for fear of a slap in the face. That girl really liked her dragons. 

"Guess your summer kinda sucked then." Karkat says, "Sorry, I should have called you and invited you to stay." 

"It's okay, I couldn't have left Tuna at home anyway." Terezi had made him swear not to speak of their holiday together, for her own personal reasons, and he'd obliged after some argument. As far as Karkat is concerned, he did nothing this summer. He especially did not hang out with Karkat's girlfriend every day and see her in her underwear (Terezi wasn't exactly considerate of privacy and whilst they'd shared a room, she'd insisted that only underwear was allowed to be worn in the room. Nothing else. They'd played Pokémon in their underwear most evenings to pass the time. He'd gotten a pretty good luck at her dragon-patterned underwear). 

"Still, sucks that you had such a lame summer."

"Mhm."

Speaking of Terezi, he spots her in the dining hall at the exact same moment that Karkat does. She's sat alone, dark-skinned and curly haired, still wearing her own horrifically bright clothes. They aren't required to wear their uniform until the first day of classes, which isn't until next week. There's time to settle in first. Karkat yells her name- "TEREZI, HEY, YOU, MY GIRLFRIEND"- causing the blind girl to look up, before he races over. 

This leaves Sollux to trail after him, ignoring the glares that he can see Ampora throwing at him from across the room. 

He refuses to give that asshole his attention, even if he is looking pretty cute in a t-shirt with his freckled arms on show. 

Damn it, cute people need to be deleted from the universe.


	4. Terezi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "whoops i'm gay"

Terezi Pyrope had spent the entire summer trying to figure out what she was going to say to her boyfriend and found no words to describe how she felt. 

She'd been dating Karkat Vantas for a couple of years and they'd been friends since they very small, since their parents had worked together for a while on a case. Her mom was a lawyer, Karkar's dad was a rights activist- both professions that were very unusual for magic-users- and she'd gotten him out of some legal trouble. 

Terezi asked Karkat out in their third year, midway through the year, and he'd agreed without a single pause. Together, they'd snuck out after night fall to spy on the faeries that came out at night to flutter about. She'd been so sure then that she really, truly loved him. And she knew that they looked together, her taller and wearing bright colours, wacky clothes and him shorter and wearing dark colours, boring clothes. She knew because she wasn't as blind as everybody thought. 

Terezi wasn't entirely blind, she was just legally blind. She could just about make out blurry colours and some shapes, but she couldn't see anything else. There wasn't any magic strong enough, so she just accepted the fact that she'd never be able to see. Not since... The incident. 

Sometimes, she wished that she could see. She was kinda curious as to what her friends looked like. But, as she heard Karkat yelling and rushing down to greet her, she was glad that she couldn't see because she didn't want to see the probably eager look on his face.

"Hey Terezi. How was your summer?"

"Oh, y'know, fine. We went dragon-riding. It was pretty cool."

"Yeah?"

"Sorry I couldn't write you. Mom had work abroad and we had to go with her." 'We' included her, Latula, Latula's boyfriend, and Sollux. Sollux was another one of those friends that went way back and she couldn't even remember how they met because they were so small. But he was a close friend and they'd spent the summer together, lazing around and sucking on magical popsicles that made their mouths glow pink and orange. She knew he'd tell Karkat, so she'd sworn him to secrecy. 

"But why can't I tell Karkat that you were on holiday with me?" 

"Because then he'll know that I had plenty of time to write but I didn't bother." 

"And you don't want him to know that you didn't want to write him... Because?"

"Because then it will be obvious that I don't like him. I want to let him down gently. When I know how to." 

"You could just tell him that you're gay. I mean, you told me." 

"Imagine how bad that would sound! _'I know we've dated for two years but I'm kinda gay so, yeah, bye'_."

" _'Also, I have some weird crush on V-'_ "

"Shut up!" They'd agreed not to say anything to Karkat and instead pretend that she was too busy to contact him. Sollux was not to say a word about them holidaying together. 

"Oh, it's fine." Karkat sounds relieved, "Not that I was fucking worried or anything. I missed you." She knew that he wouldn't kiss him in front of everyone because he was too shy about PDAs for that but he did sit down beside her and take her hand. His hand was hot and she could see his dark skin against hers. The colours were so similar that they almost seemed to merge together. 

"He missed having your tongue rammed down his throat. He was lonely that he had to make out with his pillow instead. He told me so in very vivid detail." Sollux (probably joking) sat down opposite them and immediately helped himself to at least seven helpings of everything, "Fuck, I'm starved." 

"Doesn't your dad feed you at home?" Terezi teases. 

"Only when he remembers to. He forgets to feed himself half the time. He was so busy this summer that he forgot Tuna and I even existed. I'm just glad that Miss Maryam is having to Tuna to stay with her." Mituna was Sollux's older brother and Latula's boyfriend. He'd been involved in an accident a few years back and didn't attend the school anymore.... Instead, he stayed at home. Terezi wondered if Sollux ever missed having him at school.

"I wish I was staying with Miss Maryam instead of coming here." Karkat sighs, "No, shit, I wish I was staying at home full-stop. This year is going to be chaos. Not only do I have to avoid Strider and his antics but there's exams and I bet some shitty thing will come up and stop us having a decent year. Like last year when we had to find those stupid pillars." 

They'd spent the whole of last year searching for and shutting down the Seven Pillars, in order to save the magical world from collapsing. And that was just an example of one year that they'd spent focusing more on saving the school and by extent, the world, instead of actually studying. Every year something seemed to go wrong and the stupid adults never saw it coming until it was too late. It was like something from a shitty young adult novel. 

A giggled remark of "Sollux, you've got food all over your face!" proclaimed Feferi's arrival as she joined them at their table. Feferi Peixes was the daughter of the headmistress and therefore, a little bit snobby at times (unintentionally) and normally not allowed to join in with their adventures. She was super nice but everybody knew that Feferi would go running to her mom and get them all in trouble, whether she meant to or not. She just couldn't keep secrets, especially not from her mom. 

"Hey FF. How was your summer?" Sollux has always had a bit of a thing for Feferi. Everybody knows it. But he's also had a thing for almost everybody. He's very fluid like that. Terezi is just glad that he's never had a thing for her, thank the gods. 

"Oh, you know, it was good. Mom was busy... Gosh, weren't all the witches and wizards busy this year?" Feferi says and everybody mumbles in agreement, "I hope nothing bad's going to happen this year." 

"Touch wood." Terezi says, knocking on the table with her fist, "I don't need any shit to deal with this year. I've got enough work to do to make sure I pass Spell Casting."

"Just make sure that you remember that the movement is fluid." Feferi advised, "You're only moving your hand and arm but your whole body has to be behind that movement." 

Terezi nods, "I'll make sure to keep that in mind. Thanks, Feferi. Can you pass me that red food on your left?" 

"You mean, the cranberries?" 

"It doesn't matter what they are, it just matters that it's red." Terezi grins, as the dish is passed to her and she gets to work heaping it onto her plate. 

"Some things never change." Sollux says.


End file.
